The validation was nice, but not needed. Zoe Chapman didn’t require the endorsement of a trophy or a medal. She was already fully satisfied with the performance the Black Hills High School percussion ensemble had just put on.
The Wolves, performing Ellipsis by Nathan Daughtery, took home third place in the percussion-large category at the 2016 WMEA-WIAA State Sole and Ensemble Contest at Central Washington University.
It was the highest placing since 2012 when Black Hills placed second overall, and while there was plenty to cheer about following the announcement of the placing, the feel thrill for Chapman and her fellow percussion members came the moment they finished their piece.
“To be completely honest it was less exciting than I thought it would be,” said Chapman, one of four seniors in the eight-piece ensemble, about the announcement of the team’s third-place finish. “I had already had the excitement from having an absolutely fantastic performance. The feeling of walking off the stage with a group of people you consider close friends was incredible. You knew everyone did 100-percent and it all came together.”
It was the culmination of the countless hours of hard work each group member had put in over the handful of months leading up to the event.
The performance came together perfectly on the CWU campus that day. So much so that even if they failed to place, the experience would not be lessen.
“And that’s exactly what we were after. Placements are fun. Now you’re on paper and no one can ever take that away from you, but that’s not really why we do what we do,” said Keith Mitchell, who teaches percussion studies with Andrew Landowski at Black Hills High School. “Before they went out on the stage I told them to play to their potential, have a ton of fun and leave nothing out there. I don’t care if we place. I don’t care if we get terrible scores, and terrible comments. If they truly went out there and did their very best the mission was accomplished.”
Joining Chapman in the eight-member ensemble were seniors Will Mitchell, Tristan Shank and Draevin Luke and juniors Ian Swenson, Ethan Lovett, Alex Robertson and Colton Steele.
“It’s a lot to get each and every student to the level of where we need to be as an ensemble. It’s like a light switch you either turn it on and it works or it’s off,” Mitchell said. “This is a pretty special group. With any performing group the chemistry is really important and these guys just have a really strong chemistry together. They have expectations. They have passion. They have a love for the percussive arts. They know it’s a challenge on a daily basis. They really don’t have that luxury of just coming in and being nonchalant towards what we are doing.”
To prep for the performance, the group rehearsed 40 minutes a day during the school week leading up to regionals where a first place was required to move on to state.
“There’s actually a pretty long break between regionals and going to state. It can be good or bad,” Chapman said. “I think it was nice for us to have that break, but getting everyone back into it was difficult. It wasn’t perfect at regionals so it definitely took a lot of work to surpass that.”
Once at state, three different judges rate the performances in the various categories on a 1-3 scoring system with 1 being the highest. The only way to have an opportunity to place among the final three is to receive a top score from all three judges.
“We’ve actually had several years before where we received all 1s and didn’t make the top three. It’s competitive. Having three people collectively agree on anything can be pretty tricky,” Landowski said. “The kids are all playing different pieces, ensembles can be anywhere from five to sixteen kids. At times some of it comes down to preference. It’s pretty subjective. Unlike athletics, which has different classifications, all the schools are competing against each other. It’s really impressive that they were able to compete against schools that had twice as many students as we do.”
It marked the 12th consecutive year Black Hills, which begin its percussion program in 2001, has advanced to state.
“When you’re a successful program, year after year, people may not understand all the work that goes into it. They figure that’s just what they do or it’s perceived as easy and it’s not. This is not easy. It’s a whole other world.”
One more performance, however, remains for the percussion ensemble. It will occur in front of a completely different audience – their classmates.
“I really thought state was the end. It’s really strange playing it again, but it’s nice,” Chapman said. “It’s definitely a different pressure than state. It’s in front of all your peers and with something like this you want to show them how cool this is.”
